moonspinner55 Review of Daddy Long Legs

Daddy Long Legs (1955)

Lots of production gloss and style, but the story is old hat...

[5/10 · 5 November 2005]

Fred Astaire as an American corporate shareholder with interest in numerous companies who, while on a trip to France, becomes enchanted from afar by an 18-year-old orphan and decides to sponsor her; she enrolls at college in Massachusetts, and dreams of who her benefactor is. Remake of both a 1919 Mary Pickford silent and a Janet Gaynor comedy from 1931 shows a fashionably plush, sassy style in its fantasy sequences; however, director Jean Negulesco isn't able to pick up the pace, and the rest of the film is bogged down by talk and a plot that seems constructed by-the-numbers. Leslie Caron, still doing the orphan routine, looks more than ready to graduate, but she's delightful dancing with Astaire. In these musical moments, the film takes flight and becomes a 1950s fashion-magazine come to life. ** from ****